High School Golf Champion Cannot Play in Team's State Finals Due to Her Sex

UGH.

Here's something not very golden currently going on in the world of golf: Massachusetts high school student Emily Nash found herself in an unfair predicament this week after finishing in the top spot in her school's division golfing championship.

Emily, who plays on the fall boys' golf team at Lunenburg High School — which the state allows for all schools that don't have a fall girls' team — was fresh from being crowned the overall player winner with a four-stroke advantage over the second-place student from another school, with her school's team finishing in a respectable fourth place. Super awesome, right? However, due to a rule that Massachusetts hasn't bothered to update, Emily was devoid of not only receiving her first-place trophy, but she's also being barred from participating in the boys' golf state championship due to her sex, PGA reports.

"Girls playing on a fall boys' team cannot be entered in the Boys Fall Individual Tournament. They can only play in the Boys Team Tournament," the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association states in its rulebook, according to PGA. "If qualified, they can play in the spring Girls Sectional and State Championships."

It should be noted that Emily wasn't given any advantage because of her sex: She played on the same course in the same weather conditions and wasn't given a handicap, and still beat the tournament's runner-up by four strokes. And despite PGA reporting that the tournament's supervisors, coaches, and players thought the rule was "complete garbage" and deserves to be changed, it was still enforced. In fact, the second-place winner offered to give Emily the trophy. She politely declined.

As for Emily, despite some disappointment, she's actually not calling for a total rule change. "I feel like it's a bit unfair. I played from the same tees as the guys and I played with them all season," she told CBS News. "It's fine if I don't advance on to states, but it would've been nice if I could've gotten the title of winning." Her humility is certainly honorable, but hey, it's 2017. Give Emily her trophy and her spot in the state championship.